How to Drive Traffic to your Amazon Product Listing

The more eyeballs on your product listings, the better the odds are for increasing sales and revenue.

For those new to selling on Amazon (not ranking yet), driving traffic lets you boost your sales velocity and rankings, making doing so incredibly valuable for product launches and to obtain firm footing within your niche.

For the seasoned seller already ranking well on Amazon, using a variety of channels to drive traffic to your Amazon product listings gives you the ability to expand your pool of prospective customers.

The gold lies in figuring out what comprises the “best” way to do this.

Honestly, when it comes to deciding, there really isn't an absolute ‘best’ source of traffic for driving views to all Amazon product listings. It’s a matter of...

1. what products you are selling,
2. the market you are targeting,
3. the assets available to you and
4. your business objectives (short term and long).

Understanding the choices and strategies available to you as an Amazon seller to drive traffic to your product listings is a critical component for determining which way is the “best” for your unique business.

Mike Zagare, (President and Co-Founder of PPC Entourage) reveals what's working NOW in his podcast interview hosted by Ryan Daniel Moran of Freedom Fast Lane.

The first place to start this process is by checking out your competition. A competitor analysis will help to show you several useful pieces of the Amazon product listing puzzle that would otherwise take time, money and mistakes to learn.

Competitor pages allow you to get a good look at what shoppers want and don’t want. By looking at your competitor’s pages that feature identical or complementary products, you gleam which products you should carry, how best to frame them, and work out strategies that improve upon what your competitor is doing.

Creating a great product listing is an ideal place to begin to realize your goal of influencing Amazon to send traffic your way.

Driving Traffic by Optimizations on Amazon

1. Use fully optimized Sponsored Products Ad campaigns (PPC Entourage can help you accomplish this task in less time and with fewer ad spend dollars wasted).
2. Seek out a proven Blueprint that will guide you step-by-step on how to create an effective revenue-generating Sponsored Products Ad campaign.
3. Make sure the content of your product listing is relevant.

* You don't have to know what the exact Amazon product ranking algorithm is, but it is essential that you are aware of the algorithm's integral pieces that affect the amount of traffic sent to your product listing:

Price – increase or decrease your sales tags roughly every six or seven weeks. Repricing helps to keep your product listing fresh (sporadic use of discounts, for example, can help to bump up your standing in the search results). **

**Make sure to balance price against popularity (the most popular products are those with the most page views).

Availability – the number that you have left in stock of a particular item shows up on your page and lets shoppers know if you’re pricing it to sell, or pricing it by market standards.

Sales History – the total volume of sales determines where you rank. Tracking the sales velocity and history of a product is one of the main methods that Amazon uses to decide where your product will rank. (This data tells Amazon whether or not your product is resulting in sales and, thus, revenue for them). ***

*** If Amazon doesn’t believe your product will result in maximum sales, it won't rank well. While you can’t change the sales history of your products in a short span of time, you can change the velocity (the number of sales your product gets within a certain duration).

Rapid increases in sales velocity will alert Amazon that your product is becoming more popular and they will start moving your listing up the ranks.

How to spike sales velocity:

• Increase your budget on Sponsored Product Ads bids (focus on your most lucrative keywords).
• Lower your prices for a quick boost in sales, then increase them to your regular price points.

Use Keywords to Drive Traffic to Your Amazon Listing

The keywords included in your listing have a major impact on the traffic your listing will receive. Your product will not appear in Amazon’s search results if a shopper uses a keyword that is not included in your listing or search terms (back-end keywords).

Letting just one high volume keyword fall through the cracks that's relevant to your product could cost you a significant amount of traffic to your product listing.

To guarantee that all important keywords (high volume and relevant) are identified and included in your listing, you must perform a comprehensive keyword research, using software like PPC Entourage (Power PPC) that can provide data and automation to enhance the process.

Keep in mind the difference between keyword research for Google and Amazon. Individuals search on Google for information, services and products, while searches on Amazon are just for products. Prioritize keywords that have buyer intent, over more informational keyword phrases.

Other Optimizations that Can Boost Traffic to Your Listings

• Use competitor main images to not only create similar ones, but to figure out what will make your main image better - standing out from the crowd in your niche.
• Consider changing the way your product is displayed in your main image, if you are getting a lot of impressions, but not a lot of clicks. Change the direction or angle your product is seen from. (Also, if your conversion rate is unsatisfactory, consider changing up a picture or two inside the product listing).
• Try to get the product in the frame as large as possible. (This will also enhance the product visibility in search results).
• Show only the items that are being sold as part of the product package. Don’t add props, or any other items that make it difficult to understand exactly what’s being sold.
• Use a lifestyle photo showing people actively engaged in using the product as a secondary image (or as the perfect main image in a Headline Search Ad).
• Split test the main product images (set up multiple campaigns to make sure you are selling the click). A/B testing your images is the only way to know 100% if you are getting the most sales possible.

2. Perfect Your Titles

Titles have the most weight in terms of search relevancy. There is little point including top keywords in your product page if they are excluded from the title.

• List the top keywords that you want to rank for and include these in your title, making sure to include the most important ones at the start.
• Pepper keywords around your product page listing (in bullet points and the description), so that Amazon knows your product is relevant for someone searching with that keyword.
• If you sell branded products, include the brand name.
• Include at least one unique selling point that differentiates you from competitors.
• Spell out measure words such as ounce, inch and pound
• All numbers should be numerals, not spelled out.

3. Embellish Bullet Points

Give shoppers all the information they need to know immediately by highlighting every unique selling point in a concise way.

• Make your bullets long enough to engage the reader, but short enough to keep it to the point.
• Describe all of your products features when appropriate.
• Make your bullet points as keyword-rich as possible (try to still use persuasive language).
• Use all of your bullet points, even if you are struggling to think of more things to write (the more information given about your product, the closer you get to a sale.)
• Use complete sentences that spark interest (for example, show the shopper how your product is different from a cheaper competitor version).

4. Enhanced Brand Content

The Enhanced Brand Content feature enables brand owners to showcase the unique value proposition of their products. Amazon business owners can give the product features of branded ASINs, in a much more captivating way that drives more traffic to their listings.

After an Amazon seller has optimized these aspects of their Amazon listings, they should now consider how to get traffic to Amazon from external sources.

Driving External Traffic to Your Amazon Product Listing

5. Amazon appreciates when you bring new customers to them (when sellers direct outside traffic to Amazon.com, they help Amazon gain more customers and make more money). The popular belief by sellers is that Amazon rewards this by sending even more traffic to their listings.
6. Creates a competitive advantage for you in your niche (by sending traffic directly to your listing, you don’t have to compete with other products on the Amazon Search Engine Results Page)

**** The qualifications for obtaining an Amazon Bestseller ranking are based upon a product’s sales, and the rankings are updated hourly to reflect historical and recent sales of every item sold (you not only have to beat the competitors in your niche once, but have to continuously out-pace them in terms of sales. But as the titleholder, you will receive enough credibility, visibility and sales to make these efforts worthwhile).

Amazon sellers have several options for driving external traffic

1. Influencers – Targeting influencers is one of the most effective ways to reach your target market. By reaching out to an influencer, an Amazon seller can get them to share information about your Amazon business and products with their audience. However, unlike buying ads on search engines or social networks, there’s more legwork required with this approach. Influencer outreach for your Amazon business comprises four steps: a) Make a list of influencers in your space, b) Email them, c) Follow up (if they don't respond, d) Try to negotiate a deal.
2. Podcasts – are especially effective for promoting your Amazon business and products because it allows you to fully explain or expand upon the benefits offered by your products in an interactive way (questions and answers).
3. YouTube – YouTube is on the rise as a viable source for driving traffic to Amazon. About 50% of the total traffic from social media sources that direct traffic to Amazon now appears to be coming from YouTube.
4. Paid Social Media Ads – Ads on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, etc.
   • Facebook - Facebook is one of the best ways for Amazon sellers to drive external traffic. Facebook ads offer a large variety of targeting options (age, gender, geographic location, interests and re-targeting previous website visitors /customers). By setting up a successful Facebook ad campaign, your Amazon listing will benefit from increased sales velocity, which leads to a higher BSR, better rankings and higher revenues. Facebook Ads can be very effective for some niches (lifestyle products), but they can be costly.
   • Pinterest - Pinterest is a visual social network where users can pin images they like. Pinterest Ads uses a system called “Promoted Pins,” which create more visibility for your pins and thus more traffic. When deciding if this is a good channel for driving external traffic, Amazon sellers should keep in mind that Pinterest is very visual and primarily used by women (81% according to a recent poll by Business Insider). If your products are beautifully designed and mainly catered to women, Pinterest is likely a solid option for external traffic.
   • Instagram - Instagram is owned by Facebook, so you can use Facebook’s advertising tools to promote your products on Instagram. Similar to Pinterest, Instagram ads will work especially well if you have nice looking products and high quality photography.
5. Bloggers – usually have an email list, social media accounts and a blog where they can post your product.
6. Search Engine Marketing – (Search Engine Advertising), lets Amazon sellers show their ads on search engines, such as Google and Bing. Customers will see your ad at the moment they’re searching on Google or Bing for the products you offer.
7. Google AdWords – lets you show ads to people that search for specific search terms (keywords) in Google. AdWords can work very well for Amazon businesses. The secret to making AdWords for your Amazon products work is to drive traffic to a landing page, instead of to your Amazon listing.

The Mindsets Vital for Driving External Amazon Traffic

Regardless of the source of traffic decided upon, every Amazon seller should embrace these two important mindsets before driving off-Amazon traffic to your product listings.

1. Target only relevant listings so that the new traffic is as high quality as possible, which means it's essential to get your audience targeting zeroed-in, so that visitors (prospective customers) will be likely to convert.

   Think in terms of customer lifetime value so that the benefits of driving traffic to Amazon extend far beyond making the initial sale. When done properly, that initial sale can be the gateway to creating long term customers and for building your brand. Push yourself to provide as much value as possible (ask "how can I serve my customers better?"

2. Learning how to drive more external traffic to your Amazon listing will give any Amazon seller a competitive edge, as well as help you to build a strong brand that will have longevity.
   No matter what source of traffic (or combinations of) that you decide to use to drive more eyes to your Amazon business, always keep testing to determine which is the best fit for your objectives. And remember, that even one small change can potentially have a huge impact.

Mike Zagare, (President and Co-Founder of PPC Entourage) reveals what's working NOW in his podcast interview hosted by Ryan Daniel Moran of Freedom Fast Lane.